Are they a thing? Ok I know that one has the capability to make one regardless of what anyone else says but are they accepted in the community? Or are they something that people tend to not allow for one reason or another.
I know this may seem like a silly question but after being in several communities where my disabled characters were ignored thoroughly and loudly until I switched to a different one and hearing all the talk online of 'darn SJWs coming in and ruining everything' whenever LGBTQ or disabled characters are brought up I thought I might check before getting too far into character creation since I've got several ideas but a few are disabled in some fashion and/or very not straight.
I think it's perfectly fine to create any character you wish to play. The key is to find a group of people who don't mind and are accepting of those characters.
LGBTQ characters are a thing. Player's Handbook Chapter 4: Personality and Background says this in the section on sex:
You can play a male or female character without gaining any special benefits or hindrances. Think about how your character does or does not conform to the broader culture’s expectations of sex, gender, and sexual behavior. For example, a male drow cleric defies the traditional gender divisions of drow society, which could be a reason for your character to leave that society and come to the surface.
You don’t need to be confined to binary notions of sex and gender. The elf god Corellon Larethian is often seen as androgynous or hermaphroditic, for example, and some elves in the multiverse are made in Corellon’s image. You could also play a female character who presents herself as a man, a man who feels trapped in a female body, or a bearded female dwarf who hates being mistaken for a male. Likewise, your character’s sexual orientation is for you to decide.
“It’s important to many of us personally in the company for the game to acknowledge our existence,” Crawford said of publisher Wizards of the Coast, which marched at Seattle’s Gay Pride parade for the first time this year. “It makes a real difference in people’s lives.”
If your group doesn't respect your decision to play an LGBTQ character those are probably not people you want to play with anyways.
Disabilities are trickier, because unlike gender or sexual orientation, they could put your character at a disadvantage. Depending on the character you have in mind, I'd make sure the DM and other players are on board with it. For example, playing a blind wizard is going to limit your options a lot because most targeted spells require sight and you'll be much easier to hit with attacks. Some players are mainly interested in the creating an interesting story and won't mind, but more challenge-oriented players may see your character as an unwelcome liability.
I know this may seem like a silly question but after being in several communities where my disabled characters were ignored thoroughly and loudly until I switched to a different one and hearing all the talk online of 'darn SJWs coming in and ruining everything' I thought I might check before getting too far into character creation since I've got several ideas but a few are disabled in some fashion and/or very not straight.
As a general rule of thumb, I avoid socialising with anyone who uses terms like "cultural marxist", "SJW", "cuck", "leftist", or "antifa" in a derogatory manner. It just makes life so much easier when I exist solely inside my culturally marxist, SJW, cuck, leftist, antifa echo-chamber bubble of pleasant tolerance. This way, I don't need the rest of society to conform to my socialist utopia: I carry it with me wherever I am.
LGBTQ characters are a thing. Player's Handbook Chapter 4: Personality and Background says this in the section on sex:
You can play a male or female character without gaining any special benefits or hindrances. Think about how your character does or does not conform to the broader culture’s expectations of sex, gender, and sexual behavior. For example, a male drow cleric defies the traditional gender divisions of drow society, which could be a reason for your character to leave that society and come to the surface.
You don’t need to be confined to binary notions of sex and gender. The elf god Corellon Larethian is often seen as androgynous or hermaphroditic, for example, and some elves in the multiverse are made in Corellon’s image. You could also play a female character who presents herself as a man, a man who feels trapped in a female body, or a bearded female dwarf who hates being mistaken for a male. Likewise, your character’s sexual orientation is for you to decide.
“It’s important to many of us personally in the company for the game to acknowledge our existence,” Crawford said of publisher Wizards of the Coast, which marched at Seattle’s Gay Pride parade for the first time this year. “It makes a real difference in people’s lives.”
If your group doesn't respect your decision to play an LGBTQ character those are probably not people you want to play with anyways.
Disabilities are trickier, because unlike gender or sexual orientation, they could put your character at a disadvantage. Depending on the character you have in mind, I'd make sure the DM and other players are on board with it. For example, playing a blind wizard is going to limit your options a lot because most targeted spells require sight and you'll be much easier to hit with attacks. Some players are mainly interested in the creating an interesting story and won't mind, but more challenge-oriented players may see your character as an unwelcome liability.
Thank you very much for your detailed, and nice, response and for the link! I'll admit my cynical nature had gotten the better of me when reading that passage from the rulebook thanks in part to some of the horror stories I'd heard from various places on the interwebs and I should have had a bit more faith in the community, and the creators for that matter, than I did. I didn't know that the lead rules designer was gay himself I'm glad that they've been adding gay characters into the campaigns. Always nice to see more representation in fantasy.
That does make sense. I figured that would be the case but I wasn't sure how wide spread it was as I have seen it more times than I'd like elsewhere. I'll be sure to talk with the DM and players before hand if I do end up wanting to bring one of my disabled characters into a campaign.
For the question about disabilties consider that you can use extremely low stats to reflect some disabilities.
Low strength can be something like a very frail person who can barely lift 20lbs without a struggle.
Low Dexterity could be a damaged limb or a nerve condition that reduces their motor skills and coordination.
Low constitution could be a compromised immune system, such that they are/were sick frequently. Weak bones could also fall under this.
Low wisdom can be seen as something on the autism spectrum.
Low intelligence could be a brain disorder impairing their learning ability or a stroke/fever that damaged their mind.
Low charisma can be someone horribly disfigured like quasimodo, or someone with anxiety that avoids social events. Tourettes would fit here as well i think.
These are all options you could do within the games existing structure. Perhaps this will give you an idea that is easy to implement and still fun to play for evryone involved.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I'd just like to suggest a comparison to make to whoever might be against a "disabled" character: Ivar the boneless, Norse history personality and a freaking badass (albeit it can be really easy to not like for his demeanor) in the Vikings series.
The dude is literally a cripple, but can kill whoever he might want to.
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I would totally welcome that in one of my games. The role play possibilities would be awesome. An item the party needs is located inside a den of succubi that only the gay character can enter without falling to their enchantments. A party of typical brutish barbarians, frisky fighters, restless rogues and weirdo warlocks must gain the trust of a Priestess overseeing an order of cloistered virgin acolytes, the transgender character might be the only one she trusts. I am currently starting a campaign that will include a villain in a teleporting wheelchair!
I say embrace it and let your imagination run free!
There are so many copy/paste campaigns out there, that anyone who dares to bring something different or unexpected to the table is welcome. It's a grand way to change the atmosphere and provide a new experience to a shared campaign. 'Encouraged' is my vote.
Assuming the player in question was willing to abide by our table's code of conduct (an expectation for all players at our table), I would welcome a player running an LGBTQ and/or disabled character. (For all I know, some of the characters--or players--currently at the table may be LGBTQ; the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of either the characters or players has never arisen in game.)
With a disabled character, I would want to make sure that the portrayal was respectful and not reliant on stereotypes. I would also want to have a discussion about how the character's disability is reflected in the mechanics of the game. For an example discussion about both of those aspects, see this thread on enworld. The last comment on the first page (from Umbran) directly addresses issues of potential offense/insensitivity.
It all depends on your group and your DM. I run D and D for a group of teenagers at my local comic shop, and one of the things that's important for me is to let them play whatever they want to, as long as it's done respectfully. The group includes both LGBTQ and disabled members, and it's important to me to make sure they all feel welcome, and a lot of that is in my world building--its a world where there's no stigma against LGBTQ characters, and while disabled characters may face some limitations, people are generally happy to help them out and accommodate them as needed.
I also make an effort to include diverse NPCs. Some of them are casually LGBT, others have some sort of disability. There's some awkwardness about mental disabilities, since the world exists pre-psychiatry--the language used to refer to such disabilities is deliberately antiquated and vague, but the characters are treated with respect by the other NPCs.
I would note that there are characters I'd be cautious about allowing--mostly in terms of what disabilities I'd allow in what parties. Being LGBT wouldn't make a mechanical difference, but because disability does, it has to mesh with the rest of the party's playstyle. If they're cooperative and RP-heavy I'm happy to support it, but I can't run a group of 3 murderhobos and a non-verbal elf in a wheelchair. The playstyles just don't line up, and at least one person will always have a shitty time.
This is actually how I've come to embrace having lower ability scores. I know that some people will just play it off as a character's weakness and be done with it, I find it a wealth of roleplaying potential. What makes for a better long-term goal of character than to find a way to rid herself of blindness she was born with (low Wisdom) with a fabled potion that restored sight to the blind and allowed the lame to walk (low Dex)? Or, it could also represent a character's personality. Imagine a Bard with a low Charisma score who insisted that, over the course of their adventures, he would get better at singing (low Cha). Imagine the roleplaying opportunity!
Actually LGBT characters are very canon! If you read the players book for 5e, it references making trans characters as an option ! I was happy when I read that, one of my players even took up the offer and it led to a super cool High elf dude running from his arranged marriage.
I guess the problem with characters with disabilities is that it can get very tiresome depending of what disability we talk about.
Take the Kenkus for instance. It's fun to have one in the party at the beginning but in the long run, it becomes very irritating to have a character that cannot interact easily with other player characters or npcs.
And i guess the min-maxing crowd would get irritated by a party member that is unable to run or something like that.
For the LGBT characters, they are perfectly fine. It's fantasy after all, everything should be permitted. The only problem would be if the other players are a bunch of complete morons.
as ArwensDaughtersaid "For all I know, some of the characters--or players--currently at the table may be LGBTQ; the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of either the characters or players has never arisen in game."
This rings true. It's not a topic that often comes up. So if you are at a table with 5 other PCs who are otherwise sexually ambiguous because it's not part of their RP thought bubble, it might not be the crowd to start RPing in that direction. Not because of lack of tolerance, but just because it doesn't fit the game currently being played at the table. If you are however, with an RP heavy crowd where everyone has a complex backstory, personality etc.. and it is referenced / encouraged, than by all means be/do whatever you want.
Also... you can always do/be whatever you want, that's pretty much the point of role playing games. Just don't equate players rolling their eyes to intolerance, if they are not an RP-centric group. They would be rolling their eyes at any RPing that is not directly related to what is currently going on in the game.
I've never had a player roll a character and then specifically stating that it is 'LGBTQ'. I don't know why. Perhaps because it would be like playing Ludo and saying 'my token is a LGBTQ token'?
I used to not like what I call D&D gender-bending i.e. playing a character of the opposite sex. This was just too confusing, I got it mixed up all the time. I still do sometimes. My main problem with that nowadays is that people sometimes play characters of the opposite sex as gross, offensive stereotypes. Well -- at least in a way that I find offensive and disturbing. I don't like my D&D sessions to be like bad drag shows. I suppose a straight man playing a gay would have a fair chance of coming across this way to me as well (or vice versa). On the other hand I've always been very sensitive to that sort of thing.
If you make a point buy character and min/max it, there is a fair chance it will be borderline disabled in at least one aspect of its being. It will probably be a slight mental disability or social handicap. But remember that famous quote from Tropic Thunder and you will perhaps not annoy your DM to death...
I think the bottom line here is that these things are perfectly fine/acceptable/normal for "the community", and even the designers of the game.
You may or may not run into issues with certain groups or players that don't like it. If a group you want to play in doesn't want to allow these things, probably just take a bit more time and find a group that will. That can be easier said than done sometimes and I get that... but it will be a better experience for you that way.
From my perspective, as long as the group is having fun (players and GM alike), it shouldn't matter whatsoever what the party composition is or what character traits each individual character has (other than providing more interesting story possibilities and experiences).
I once ran a campaign were a player took a blind Monk, it had it's challenges, but I gave him blindsight (it was called something else back then) up to 10ft. and he had a travelling companion who was a fighter, very much like in Rogue One, but it was styled after the movie Blind Fury in 1989.
I also ran a game in another setting where a character had hemophilia (bleeding disease) and he was a warrior, this however was due to an unfortunate background roll rather than a conscious choice, still we had fun with it and he was always on the look out for a cure. I dropped an adventure hook where there was a magical pool in the mountains that had miraculous healing properties, however it was inhabited by a family of Ogres, females and their young. The moral arguments the players had about killing them all, after all they were the invaders and the Ogres were just minding their own business, they had fields and livestock, so just regular creatures living their life, (they did kill them all), however the rumors were true and it cured disease, wounds and poison, but not his affliction. The guilt felt by the party was real and one character almost left due to the horrible things that party did to a family of Ogres minding their own business.
My players hated me and loved me at the same time, mostly due to moral quandaries I presented them with, my adventures were never as clear cut as they seemed, rescuing Goblins from enslavement by an evil wizard, enlisting a vampires help to find the evil intent on destroying the town, payment was willing people to feed him, but he wasn't allowed to kill them, (why would a vampire kill those who sustain them? Was his argument), fun times!!!
I know this is late but the current character I’m planning on using has a punctured lung and pain in his right leg from previous injuries and a poisoned blade. So is there a way I can be respectful about it? I don’t want to offend anyone with him
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Are they a thing? Ok I know that one has the capability to make one regardless of what anyone else says but are they accepted in the community? Or are they something that people tend to not allow for one reason or another.
I know this may seem like a silly question but after being in several communities where my disabled characters were ignored thoroughly and loudly until I switched to a different one and hearing all the talk online of 'darn SJWs coming in and ruining everything' whenever LGBTQ or disabled characters are brought up I thought I might check before getting too far into character creation since I've got several ideas but a few are disabled in some fashion and/or very not straight.
I think it's perfectly fine to create any character you wish to play. The key is to find a group of people who don't mind and are accepting of those characters.
A dwarf with a canoe on his back? What could go wrong?
LGBTQ characters are a thing. Player's Handbook Chapter 4: Personality and Background says this in the section on sex:
See also Kotaku's article Dungeons & Dragons Promises To Make Its Adventures More Queer. Every adventure since Curse of Strahd has included at least 1 LGBTQ character. The lead rules designer, Jeremy Crawford, is himself gay.
If your group doesn't respect your decision to play an LGBTQ character those are probably not people you want to play with anyways.
Disabilities are trickier, because unlike gender or sexual orientation, they could put your character at a disadvantage. Depending on the character you have in mind, I'd make sure the DM and other players are on board with it. For example, playing a blind wizard is going to limit your options a lot because most targeted spells require sight and you'll be much easier to hit with attacks. Some players are mainly interested in the creating an interesting story and won't mind, but more challenge-oriented players may see your character as an unwelcome liability.
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Thank you very much for your detailed, and nice, response and for the link! I'll admit my cynical nature had gotten the better of me when reading that passage from the rulebook thanks in part to some of the horror stories I'd heard from various places on the interwebs and I should have had a bit more faith in the community, and the creators for that matter, than I did. I didn't know that the lead rules designer was gay himself I'm glad that they've been adding gay characters into the campaigns. Always nice to see more representation in fantasy.
That does make sense. I figured that would be the case but I wasn't sure how wide spread it was as I have seen it more times than I'd like elsewhere. I'll be sure to talk with the DM and players before hand if I do end up wanting to bring one of my disabled characters into a campaign.
I hope you have a wonderful day!
For the question about disabilties consider that you can use extremely low stats to reflect some disabilities.
Low strength can be something like a very frail person who can barely lift 20lbs without a struggle.
Low Dexterity could be a damaged limb or a nerve condition that reduces their motor skills and coordination.
Low constitution could be a compromised immune system, such that they are/were sick frequently. Weak bones could also fall under this.
Low wisdom can be seen as something on the autism spectrum.
Low intelligence could be a brain disorder impairing their learning ability or a stroke/fever that damaged their mind.
Low charisma can be someone horribly disfigured like quasimodo, or someone with anxiety that avoids social events. Tourettes would fit here as well i think.
These are all options you could do within the games existing structure. Perhaps this will give you an idea that is easy to implement and still fun to play for evryone involved.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
Thanks to this thread I learned what a cuck is. :)
Never heard that term before.
I'd just like to suggest a comparison to make to whoever might be against a "disabled" character: Ivar the boneless, Norse history personality and a freaking badass (albeit it can be really easy to not like for his demeanor) in the Vikings series.
The dude is literally a cripple, but can kill whoever he might want to.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
I would totally welcome that in one of my games. The role play possibilities would be awesome. An item the party needs is located inside a den of succubi that only the gay character can enter without falling to their enchantments. A party of typical brutish barbarians, frisky fighters, restless rogues and weirdo warlocks must gain the trust of a Priestess overseeing an order of cloistered virgin acolytes, the transgender character might be the only one she trusts. I am currently starting a campaign that will include a villain in a teleporting wheelchair!
I say embrace it and let your imagination run free!
There are so many copy/paste campaigns out there, that anyone who dares to bring something different or unexpected to the table is welcome. It's a grand way to change the atmosphere and provide a new experience to a shared campaign. 'Encouraged' is my vote.
Assuming the player in question was willing to abide by our table's code of conduct (an expectation for all players at our table), I would welcome a player running an LGBTQ and/or disabled character. (For all I know, some of the characters--or players--currently at the table may be LGBTQ; the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of either the characters or players has never arisen in game.)
With a disabled character, I would want to make sure that the portrayal was respectful and not reliant on stereotypes. I would also want to have a discussion about how the character's disability is reflected in the mechanics of the game. For an example discussion about both of those aspects, see this thread on enworld. The last comment on the first page (from Umbran) directly addresses issues of potential offense/insensitivity.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
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It all depends on your group and your DM. I run D and D for a group of teenagers at my local comic shop, and one of the things that's important for me is to let them play whatever they want to, as long as it's done respectfully. The group includes both LGBTQ and disabled members, and it's important to me to make sure they all feel welcome, and a lot of that is in my world building--its a world where there's no stigma against LGBTQ characters, and while disabled characters may face some limitations, people are generally happy to help them out and accommodate them as needed.
I also make an effort to include diverse NPCs. Some of them are casually LGBT, others have some sort of disability. There's some awkwardness about mental disabilities, since the world exists pre-psychiatry--the language used to refer to such disabilities is deliberately antiquated and vague, but the characters are treated with respect by the other NPCs.
I would note that there are characters I'd be cautious about allowing--mostly in terms of what disabilities I'd allow in what parties. Being LGBT wouldn't make a mechanical difference, but because disability does, it has to mesh with the rest of the party's playstyle. If they're cooperative and RP-heavy I'm happy to support it, but I can't run a group of 3 murderhobos and a non-verbal elf in a wheelchair. The playstyles just don't line up, and at least one person will always have a shitty time.
This is actually how I've come to embrace having lower ability scores. I know that some people will just play it off as a character's weakness and be done with it, I find it a wealth of roleplaying potential. What makes for a better long-term goal of character than to find a way to rid herself of blindness she was born with (low Wisdom) with a fabled potion that restored sight to the blind and allowed the lame to walk (low Dex)? Or, it could also represent a character's personality. Imagine a Bard with a low Charisma score who insisted that, over the course of their adventures, he would get better at singing (low Cha). Imagine the roleplaying opportunity!
Actually LGBT characters are very canon! If you read the players book for 5e, it references making trans characters as an option ! I was happy when I read that, one of my players even took up the offer and it led to a super cool High elf dude running from his arranged marriage.
I guess the problem with characters with disabilities is that it can get very tiresome depending of what disability we talk about.
Take the Kenkus for instance. It's fun to have one in the party at the beginning but in the long run, it becomes very irritating to have a character that cannot interact easily with other player characters or npcs.
And i guess the min-maxing crowd would get irritated by a party member that is unable to run or something like that.
For the LGBT characters, they are perfectly fine. It's fantasy after all, everything should be permitted. The only problem would be if the other players are a bunch of complete morons.
as ArwensDaughter said "For all I know, some of the characters--or players--currently at the table may be LGBTQ; the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of either the characters or players has never arisen in game."
This rings true. It's not a topic that often comes up. So if you are at a table with 5 other PCs who are otherwise sexually ambiguous because it's not part of their RP thought bubble, it might not be the crowd to start RPing in that direction. Not because of lack of tolerance, but just because it doesn't fit the game currently being played at the table. If you are however, with an RP heavy crowd where everyone has a complex backstory, personality etc.. and it is referenced / encouraged, than by all means be/do whatever you want.
Also... you can always do/be whatever you want, that's pretty much the point of role playing games. Just don't equate players rolling their eyes to intolerance, if they are not an RP-centric group. They would be rolling their eyes at any RPing that is not directly related to what is currently going on in the game.
I've never had a player roll a character and then specifically stating that it is 'LGBTQ'. I don't know why. Perhaps because it would be like playing Ludo and saying 'my token is a LGBTQ token'?
I used to not like what I call D&D gender-bending i.e. playing a character of the opposite sex. This was just too confusing, I got it mixed up all the time. I still do sometimes. My main problem with that nowadays is that people sometimes play characters of the opposite sex as gross, offensive stereotypes. Well -- at least in a way that I find offensive and disturbing. I don't like my D&D sessions to be like bad drag shows. I suppose a straight man playing a gay would have a fair chance of coming across this way to me as well (or vice versa). On the other hand I've always been very sensitive to that sort of thing.
If you make a point buy character and min/max it, there is a fair chance it will be borderline disabled in at least one aspect of its being. It will probably be a slight mental disability or social handicap. But remember that famous quote from Tropic Thunder and you will perhaps not annoy your DM to death...
I think the bottom line here is that these things are perfectly fine/acceptable/normal for "the community", and even the designers of the game.
You may or may not run into issues with certain groups or players that don't like it. If a group you want to play in doesn't want to allow these things, probably just take a bit more time and find a group that will. That can be easier said than done sometimes and I get that... but it will be a better experience for you that way.
From my perspective, as long as the group is having fun (players and GM alike), it shouldn't matter whatsoever what the party composition is or what character traits each individual character has (other than providing more interesting story possibilities and experiences).
I once ran a campaign were a player took a blind Monk, it had it's challenges, but I gave him blindsight (it was called something else back then) up to 10ft. and he had a travelling companion who was a fighter, very much like in Rogue One, but it was styled after the movie Blind Fury in 1989.
I also ran a game in another setting where a character had hemophilia (bleeding disease) and he was a warrior, this however was due to an unfortunate background roll rather than a conscious choice, still we had fun with it and he was always on the look out for a cure. I dropped an adventure hook where there was a magical pool in the mountains that had miraculous healing properties, however it was inhabited by a family of Ogres, females and their young. The moral arguments the players had about killing them all, after all they were the invaders and the Ogres were just minding their own business, they had fields and livestock, so just regular creatures living their life, (they did kill them all), however the rumors were true and it cured disease, wounds and poison, but not his affliction. The guilt felt by the party was real and one character almost left due to the horrible things that party did to a family of Ogres minding their own business.
My players hated me and loved me at the same time, mostly due to moral quandaries I presented them with, my adventures were never as clear cut as they seemed, rescuing Goblins from enslavement by an evil wizard, enlisting a vampires help to find the evil intent on destroying the town, payment was willing people to feed him, but he wasn't allowed to kill them, (why would a vampire kill those who sustain them? Was his argument), fun times!!!
I know this is late but the current character I’m planning on using has a punctured lung and pain in his right leg from previous injuries and a poisoned blade. So is there a way I can be respectful about it? I don’t want to offend anyone with him